Sam Houston students eagerly receive caterpillars

Published 7:00 pm, Sunday, March 22, 2009

About 90 Sam Houston Elementary School first-graders got a special delivery Monday - cups of caterpillars that will turn into butterflies.

Youngsters will act as foster butterfly parents until the transformation occurs. The butterflies will then be freed as part of Hospice House Foundation's Butterfly Release and Family Celebration, set for 2-4 p.m. April 18 at Midland Center. Harpist Megan Metheney will play and refreshments will be available.

Names will be read during a memorial service and the butterflies released as a way to say "thank you" for the way our lives have been brightened, a news release said.

This is the fourth year caterpillars have been delivered to Sam Houston and youngsters gathered in the school gym for the occasion. Each of the 30 "hatching habitats," also known as paper cups with cellophane windows and lids, houses three to five caterpillars, Home Hospice spokeswoman Karen Carter said. On the bottom is a substance resembling peanut butter, or caterpillar food.

"You guys are going to get to watch all the steps from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly," Carter said, adding the process takes three to four weeks. "You get to be butterfly foster parents."

The Midland Center event is free and open to the public. Those who want to free a Painted Lady will be asked for a $25 donation, Carter said.

This is the fourth year first-grade teacher Amber Pena has been involved in the event. The mother of a former student worked at Hospice and got Pena into the festivities.

"I happened to be at the right school at the right time. What's neat is the Sam Houston (Elementary School) in Odessa" does its part, Pena said.

"It's always exciting for the kids to be part of the butterfly raising experience. It ties into our science curriculum, it ties into our literature and it ties into math - watching them grow. Over the years, we've built a curriculum around this," Pena said.

Although Pena knows what to expect every year, the kids bring a sense of wonder "because they don't know what to expect like I do."

Aiden Lauritzen, 7, said he had never technically seen a caterpillar change into a butterfly, but he's looking forward to it. "I think it's going to be really great," Lauritzen said.

Eli Arp, 7, said he liked the caterpillars because "they move around all the time." He also was interested in the webs that lined the bottoms of some of the cups. Carter said they were what will make up the caterpillar's cocoons.

Interested in watching the caterpillars grow, Arp said, "Now I get to raise one."

Other celebrations will be held:

-From 2 p.m.-4 p.m. April 19 at the Dora Roberts Community Center in Big Spring.